Latest news with #Strava
Tom's Guide
2 days ago
- Tom's Guide
I walked 6,500 steps with the Fitbit Charge 6 vs Pixel Watch 3 — and I'm surprised by the winner
Want the best Fitbit available today? Your choices come down to the Fitbit Charge 6 and Google Pixel Watch 3. Both devices are powered by Fitbit and produced by Google, but that's where the similarities end. The Fitbit Charge 6 was announced in 2023 and remains the brand's flagship band-style fitness tracker. The Pixel Watch 3, meanwhile, launched in 2024 and is Google's one and only smartwatch offering, though it comes in two sizes. For this test, I pitted the smaller 41mm Pixel Watch 3 ($349) against the Fitbit Charge 6 ($159). With Google winding down the Fitbit brand, there's a good chance that the Charge 6 is the end of the road for perhaps the brand's most beloved wearable line. So, is the Pixel Watch 3 a good replacement for the Charge 6, at least from a fitness tracking standpoint? There's only one way to find out. Let the test begin! The Google Pixel Watch 3 is a full-featured smartwatch with all of Fitbit's best fitness tracking and wellness features built in. Though it's considerably more expensive than the Fitbit Charge 6, the Pixel Watch 3 has way more smart features, too. It also works with a gigantic range of third-party apps. The Charge 6 does not. The Charge 6 could be one of the last devices to bear the Fitbit name. Launched in 2023, this high-end tracker sports a small AMOLED touchscreen and boasts impressive fitness-tracking chops. It also has better battery life than its modern smartwatch cousin and is lighter on the wrist. Did I mention it's also about half the cost of the Pixel Watch? If you've read my previous walk test articles, you can probably go ahead and skip to the next section. For those new here, this is how these comparisons go down: With a smartwatch on either wrist, I begin tracking my walk. As a control, I manually count each step I take; my favorite Bose Quiet Comfort headphones help drown out the distraction. To help me keep track of the total, I click an old-school manual tally counter every hundred steps before starting my tally over again at one. In this case, I repeated that process 65 times before finding a nice quiet park bench to settle down on and record the data. Oh, and as an extra control, I recorded the walk using Strava on my trusty iPhone 12 Mini. Check out the results below: Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. Fitbit Charge 6 Google Pixel Watch 3 Control Step count 6,546 steps 6,653 steps 6,500 steps (manual count) Distance 3.01 miles 3.4 miles 3.41 miles (Strava) Elevation gain no data 325 feet 303 feet (Strava) Average pace 22 mins, 21 secs per mile 19 mins, 48 secs per mile 18 mins, 20 secs per mile Average heart rate 114 bpm 114 bpm n/a Max heart rate 164 bpm 164 bpm n/a Calories burned 527 calories 529 calories n/a Device battery usage + 1% - 9% n/a Well, well, well — look at which device was closer to my actual step count total by a whole seven steps; it's the Fitbit Charge 6. For what it's worth, both devices beat Strava's tally of 6,558 steps. Unfortunately for the small but mighty Charge 6, things get a little funky when we move on to distance data. Despite nailing my step count total with impressive accuracy, the device appears to have severely undercounted my distance covered by a whopping 0.4 miles... that's not an insignificant difference. The Fitbit Charge 6 frustratingly also does not report elevation gain data, even though it technically could using the onboard GPS. And while I didn't intend for this walk to be hilly, living in Seattle, Washington, a few hundred feet of elevation gain is par for the course when cruising around town on foot. The Pixel Watch 3 does report climb data, which looks perhaps a tad inflated for this walk — I tend to trust Strava as the gold standard here — but still accurate enough for my needs. Of course, had the Pixel Watch 3 undercounted my climb by 22 feet (compared to Strava), I might not be so forgiving. Strava provides two pace metrics including an average moving pace — reported above — and an elapsed pace, which tends to be slower. In this case, my elapsed pace was 19 minutes and 15 seconds per mile, much closer to the Pixel Watch 3's metric. Inflated pace data from the Fitbit Charge 6, meanwhile, makes sense given it measured a considerably shorter walk, distance-wise. Nothing warms my heart more than two devices capturing similar heart rate data during these head-to-heads, and it doesn't get any more precise than this. The same goes for calories burned. Finally, while the Pixel Watch 3 burned through 9% of its battery during my roughly one-hour-and-seven-minute walk, the Charge 6 somehow managed to gain 1% battery (from 98% when I left to 99% when I returned). In today's battle of the Fitbit-powered Google wearables, the underdog Charge 6 comes out on top. However, even though the Fitbit Charge 6 managed a closer step count total to my manual count, the Pixel Watch 3 proved more accurate across the board. Still, I'm impressed that the older, more affordable wearable was able to keep up with the newer and higher-end Pixel Watch 3. Ultimately, the Charge 6 remains one of the best fitness trackers for the money in 2025, especially if you like easy-wearing devices with great battery and onboard GPS so that you can leave your phone at home. Which fitness trackers and/or smartwatches should I test head-to-head next? Let me know in the comments below.
The Province
4 days ago
- Climate
- The Province
B.C. cyclist's clever Strava drawings: 'Perfect intersection' of art, fitness and road rash
When B.C.'s Janine Strong got into road cycling in 2019, she had no idea it would lead her down the path of Strava art: the creation of massive GPS-tracked sketches around the world. Vancouver Island's Janine Strong has battled traffic, boroughs and rain for her art: drawing giant pictures though the Strava app. Janine Strong was never going to stop. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Exclusive articles by top sports columnists Patrick Johnston, Ben Kuzma, J.J. Abrams and others. Plus, Canucks Report, Sports and Headline News newsletters and events. Unlimited online access to The Province and 15 news sites with one account. The Province ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on. Daily puzzles and comics, including the New York Times Crossword. Support local journalism. 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Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Not when she got caught in a frigid January downpour in Victoria so heavy it made her cellphone glitch. Not when she was shimmying her socked feet across a pipe spanning a river in Massachusetts, bicycle cleats in hand, her carbon fibre Trek Domane slung across her shoulder. Not when she ran straight into a street party in New York, with 300 people and a bouncy castle blocking the boulevard. Not even when she crashed hard in the rain, fracturing her pelvis and elbow. The Vancouver Island native is too dedicated to her craft: Strava art. 'I often think I'm just out here by myself doing this crazy shit. And nobody really cares, and nobody really gets it. But, you know what? I just feel driven to do it,' she said. 'That's also part of the fun. You never know what's going to happen out there.' Essential reading for hockey fans who eat, sleep, Canucks, repeat. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Strava art is a niche and thoroughly modern invention. The Strava fitness app tracks outdoor exercise activities through GPS satellites, then allows you to share your route and results to followers. And some saw another possibility — the ability to draw their own massive sketches from a satellite's eye view. Being a world traveller, Strong has spent her life on the move. It's only natural her art does, too. Wherever she's been, she's etched a bike sketch. She's cycled out giant bananas and long-haired women in New York, Santas in Victoria, penguins in Campbell River, strawberries in San Francisco, and earlier this week, a 200-kilometre long crocodile that stretches from UBC to east of Fort Langley. It was a massive undertaking, but still short of her longest — a 482-km virtual drawing along the coast of Cape Cod. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. She has an extensive portfolio of photography and artwork, and only began seriously cycling in 2019. It wasn't long before she found a way to merge her loves. 'We all learn to ride bikes as kids. I think it's a funny thing how when we get our driver's licence, we kind of sit down the bike oftentimes. And so that's definitely what happened for me … 2019 was really my first year really becoming a serious road cyclist, and I got bitten by the bug really hard,' she said. 'I've always loved maps, and then when I had this new-found love for cycling, to be able to combine my love for drawing and art with it? It was like this perfect intersection of those things.' Her first efforts were, by her assessment, rudimentary and simplistic, but quickly progressed to more intricate designs. While some in the Strava art community — it's a very widespread and popular one — use photo shop overlaid on maps to plan their routes, Strong goes for a more analog method. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'There is something about finding an image in a map of city streets that has been there forever, like being the one to make something emerge out of the map that's essentially always been there, but nobody had actually just drawn it,' said the UBC grad. 'I don't even want to know how many hours I have spent on some of these pieces, figuring them out, because that's the thing that takes the time. Executing it is minimal compared to the planning and figuring out the route. But there's something that I love about that too, about zooming in, zooming out, and looking at the angles of streets.' 'Sometimes it just feels magical, the way it comes together. And I'm like, 'click, click, click, oh yeah, this works.' I'm sort of clicking it out on my map, online, and other times, it's super frustrating, and it takes me many, many, many, many tries and many, many, many, many hours.' This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Janine Strong, right, hits the pavement of Monterey County in California with endurance rider Lael Wilcox. Photo by Janine Strong/Instagram / PNG Those clicks have taken her down back alleys in Brooklyn, the rolling highland hills of the Berkshires, the desert climes of Joshua Tree, Calif., and all over the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island. The tight-rope pipe climb across the river in Massachusetts came after she'd gone nearly 100 kms, only to find the bridge she needed to cross was closed. And speaking of bridges, the crocodile she just completed took her over the Port Mann and Alex Fraser bridges, and into the depths of the north end of Delta's Burns Bog. 'I think my love of travel is just seeing somewhere new and going somewhere new,' she said. 'That's something that's always very cool about these pieces; I would never ride in some of the places that these drawings take me unless I was doing one. Even when it's a city that felt like home for decades, there is always a street you have never been down.' Read More Vancouver Canucks National Sports NHL Vancouver Canucks
Tom's Guide
4 days ago
- Tom's Guide
I didn't ask for an AI bot on the Apple Watch, but we're getting one anyway
Last week at WWDC 2025, Apple announced a ton of new features coming to iPhone, Mac and iPad later in the year. But as a former fitness editor, I was most interested in what's going on with the Apple Watch. When watchOS 26 lands in the fall, the best Apple Watches will get a Liquid Glass refresh (no, this isn't a new type of screen, but a translucent design language), a simplified Control Centre for quick access to settings and some new customization features. But the main event of Apple's smartwatch plans is the new AI-backed Workout Buddy. In the Newsroom post announcing all these features, Apple suggests that it'll give you a 'personalized pep talk' like: 'Way to get out for your run this Wednesday morning. You're 18 minutes away from closing your Exercise ring. So far this week, you've run 6 miles. You're going to add to that today.' Does that sound helpful? Not to me, anyway. I'm not sure that I need to pay several hundred dollars for a device that'll tell me things I already know. Don't get me wrong; I think the Apple Watch is easily the best smartwatch available right now (it's just a shame it doesn't work on Android). I recommend it to pretty much anyone with an iPhone because, unless you need something more focused on intense training (in which case, a Garmin watch would do you well), there's nothing better. But the Workout Buddy sounds like Oura's similarly uninspiring AI Advisor — another tool I tend to just ignore. It's not the concept that I dislike — I think actionable insights based on your specific data could be really useful — but the implementation of these features feels a bit like an afterthought. The example Apple gave for Workout Buddy just sounds like it's reading numbers at you, not really understanding them. And from the WWDC demo, it seems to just add a few extra words to features that already exist in other fitness watches, like an audio summary of your run or updates when you've hit a certain distance. So, it's like what you can get already but with 'Added AI' — so you get friendly phrases like, "you're crushing it." It's a similar criticism aimed at Strava's Athlete Intelligence workout summaries, which tell you how far you ran and in what time with a few other metrics that used to just be on the screen at the end of a session, but with more words. In fairness, maybe this isn't an Apple problem, but the way that technology tends to reduce exercise to a series of goals to tick off or targets to hit. I go for a walk every morning, but I don't care if I hit a certain amount of steps — for me, the benefit is spending some mindful time outside. But how can an app on a smartwatch understand that? And that's the disconnect; the intelligence part of all these AI features just isn't there, at least, not yet. Your Apple Watch doesn't know why you chose to go for a run, do a yoga session or take a walk. Strava doesn't know if you're not feeling your best so ran slower, and your Oura Ring 4 doesn't know that it was the noise of a plane that woke you up early, effecting your sleep. All these apps can see is something quantifiable, easily read by a sensor and turned into a number for you to measure yourself against. But exercise, sleep and metal wellbeing can't be defined by numbers alone. And until Workout Buddy and other AI features can really understand this, I'll be leaving them firmly in the off position.
Vancouver Sun
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Vancouver Sun
B.C. cyclist's clever Strava drawings: 'Perfect intersection' of art, fitness and road rash
Janine Strong was never going to stop. Not when she got caught in a frigid January downpour in Victoria so heavy it made her cellphone glitch. Not when she was shimmying her socked feet across a pipe spanning a river in Massachusetts, bicycle cleats in hand, her carbon fibre Trek Domane slung across her shoulder. Not when she ran straight into a street party in New York, with 300 people and a bouncy castle blocking the boulevard. Not even when she crashed hard in the rain, fracturing her pelvis and elbow. Get top headlines and gossip from the world of celebrity and entertainment. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Sun Spots will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. The Vancouver Island native is too dedicated to her craft: Strava art . 'I often think I'm just out here by myself doing this crazy shit. And nobody really cares, and nobody really gets it. But, you know what? I just feel driven to do it,' she said. 'That's also part of the fun. You never know what's going to happen out there.' Strava art is a niche and thoroughly modern invention. The Strava fitness app tracks outdoor exercise activities through GPS satellites, then allows you to share your route and results to followers. And some saw another possibility — the ability to draw their own massive sketches from a satellite's eye view. Being a world traveller, Strong has spent her life on the move. It's only natural her art does, too. Wherever she's been, she's etched a bike sketch. She's cycled out giant bananas and long-haired women in New York, Santas in Victoria, penguins in Campbell River, strawberries in San Francisco, and earlier this week, a 200-kilometre long crocodile that stretches from UBC to east of Fort Langley. It was a massive undertaking, but still short of her longest — a 482-km virtual drawing along the coast of Cape Cod . A post shared by Janine Strong (@ She has an extensive portfolio of photography and artwork, and only began seriously cycling in 2019. It wasn't long before she found a way to merge her loves. 'We all learn to ride bikes as kids. I think it's a funny thing how when we get our driver's licence, we kind of sit down the bike oftentimes. And so that's definitely what happened for me … 2019 was really my first year really becoming a serious road cyclist, and I got bitten by the bug really hard,' she said. 'I've always loved maps, and then when I had this new-found love for cycling, to be able to combine my love for drawing and art with it? It was like this perfect intersection of those things.' Her first efforts were, by her assessment, rudimentary and simplistic, but quickly progressed to more intricate designs. While some in the Strava art community — it's a very widespread and popular one — use photo shop overlaid on maps to plan their routes, Strong goes for a more analog method. 'There is something about finding an image in a map of city streets that has been there forever, like being the one to make something emerge out of the map that's essentially always been there, but nobody had actually just drawn it,' said the UBC grad. 'I don't even want to know how many hours I have spent on some of these pieces, figuring them out, because that's the thing that takes the time. Executing it is minimal compared to the planning and figuring out the route. But there's something that I love about that too, about zooming in, zooming out, and looking at the angles of streets.' 'Sometimes it just feels magical, the way it comes together. And I'm like, 'click, click, click, oh yeah, this works.' I'm sort of clicking it out on my on my map, online, and other times, it's super frustrating, and it takes me many, many, many, many tries and many, many, many, many hours.' Those clicks have taken her down back alleys in Brooklyn, the rolling highland hills of the Berkshires, the desert climes of Joshua Tree, Calif., and all over the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island. The crocodile took her over the Port Mann and Alex Fraser bridges, and into the depths of the north end of Delta's Burns Bog. 'I think my love of travel is just seeing somewhere new and going somewhere new,' she said. 'That's something that's always very cool about these pieces; I would never ride in some of the places that these drawings take me unless I was doing one. Even when it's a city that felt like home for decades, there is always a street you have never been down.'
South Wales Argus
12-06-2025
- Sport
- South Wales Argus
Animal lovers urged to help RSPCA at Cardiff Half Marathon
The RSPCA is offering charity places for the first time in the Cardiff Half Marathon, taking place on Sunday, October 5. Participants will help raise funds for the charity's work in rescuing, rehabilitating and rehoming animals, while volunteers are also needed to join the charity's cheer team on the day. Abi Mustard, events manager at the RSPCA, said: 'Our amazing fundraisers do vital work supporting us in rescuing, rehabilitating and rehoming or releasing thousands of animals every year. "By raising money for the RSPCA, you'll join animal lovers from across the region, and the whole country, determined to stop animal cruelty and neglect." Runners get a personalised RSPCA running vest, digital fundraising pack with ideas to help reach their target with help from the events team and access to a team Strava group to share training progress.
